At 17, he debuted with "The Student EP" on Wolf + Lamb Music, with remixes by Seth Troxler and Kasper. At 18 he continued producing and played live at Club der Visionäre and Arena in Berlin, at the Marcy in Brooklyn and at Mutek in Mexico City, alongside Deadbeat, Flying Lotus and Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts, amongst others. At 19 he studied at Brown University in Rhode Island. Nico has many releases coming up, including some on Circus Company, Wolf + Lamb (with remixes by Ryan Crosson) and on his own label, Clown and Sunset, of which he is the owner and founder.
Jaar then spent four years in underground dance circles, crafting rough, hip hop influenced house music (examples include "Love you gotta lose again", "Angles"). Initially made as jokes to make his mother laugh and dance, Jaar made two songs where he sang in his native Spanish ("Mi Mujer" and "El Bandido"). Jaar did not intend for them to come out. He changed his mind in 2010, as he felt the songs were his way of answering to what he deemed as exploitative sampling of Latin American culture by white European DJs.
He released his debut album, Space Is Only Noise, in January 2011 to critical acclaim, receiving a score of 8.4 and the title of Best New Music from Pitchfork [5] and four stars from the Guardian.[6] It was ranked #1 album of the year by Resident Advisor, Mixmag, and Crack Mag.
Jaar toured the album for three years with guitarist Dave Harrington (later of Darkside) and keyboardist Will Epstein. Jaar was voted # 1 Live Act on Resident Advisor for the 3 years he toured the record.[7]
In 2012, he debuted a live concept called From Scratch, where, in front of a live audience, he samples records he bought that day. The first iteration happened in Queens, NY at MOMA PS1; it was a 5-hour concert with collaborator Will Epstein, videographer Ryan Staake, dancer Lizzie Feidelson and singer Sasha Spielberg. He has also performed From Scratch at the Museum of Modern Art in Denver, Colorado and Montreal.
On May 18, 2012 Nicolas Jaar made his BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix' debut,[8] which was voted Radio 1's Essential Mix Of The Year of 2012.[9]
On October 4, 2013, the debut album from Darkside, Jaar's project with longtime collaborator Dave Harrington, was released to critical acclaim and a 9.0 score on Pitchfork.[10] The band toured the record for the entirety of 2014.[11]
In February 2015, Jaar released a largely ambient record entitled Pomegranates, which he intended as an alternate soundtrack to The Color of Pomegranates.[12][13]
Later that year, Jaar scored the soundtrack to Dheepan, a thriller by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard about a family of Sri Lankan refugees living in the suburbs of Paris. It was the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2015.[2]
In 2019, Jaar assembled a group of 12 researchers (Shock Forest Group) in order to explore the history and future of a military complex-turned art institution in the Netherlands. The resulting exhibition, entitled "No Camouflage' (het Hem, 2019) uncovered the myriad layers of accumulated colonial, ecological and institutional violence that interlink on the site through archival media findings, data gathering, performances and sound installations.
Jaar is part of the team at Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research, a grass-roots independent artist–run initiative founded in 2014 located in Bethlehem, Palestine. Jaar transformed Dar Jacir’s food shack into a sound studio where he has held sound workshops with kids from Aida and Dheisheh refugee camps. These sound workshops introduced the children to the practice of electronic music creation, experimenting with instruments and recording techniques available in the new studio. A residency program for international artists has been curated by Jaar since 2019, with Sebastián Jatz Rawicz (Chile) and Rolando Hernández (Mexico) as guests so far. Jaar has also held workshops at RCA Architecture Program (2021), Werkplaats Typografie, NL (2019, alongside research group SFG), 4x4 festival (Chiapas), Sonar Barcelona (2012) and Berklee College of Music, US (2015).
From 2017-2019, Jaar worked as producer / writer with FKA Twigs on her lauded album 'Magdalene'. He has recently collaborated with artist Somnath Bhatt (2018-2020), artist/designer/coder Abeera Kamran (2020-2021), composer Patrick Higgins (2019-Ongoing), artist Lydia Ourahmane (2018), installation artist Vincent De Belleval (2016-Ongoing), saxophone player Mette Henriette (2014-Ongoing) and fado singer Carminho (2011) among others. As a producer, he's been comissioned remixes by Brian Eno (2013), Cat Power (2012), Florence + The Machine (2015) and more. His song "Killing Time" was sampled on "Call Out My Name", a 2018 song by The Weeknd. He is also a current member of performance ensemble ¡miércoles! alongside dancer and choreographer Stéphanie Janaina, and part of the band DARKSIDE alongside multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington.
Jaar is the owner and founder of the New York-based imprint Other People. Notable releases include works by Lydia Lunch, DJ Slugo, William Basinski, Valentin Stip, VTGNIKE, Lucretia Dalt and 12z. Although the label predominantly releases vinyl, it also offers a membership where fans can download new releases and gain access to the entire Other People archive for $4 a month. Other People only publishes creator-owned content and splits all profits made from records sales 50/50 with artists.
I Got a Woman
Nicolas Jaar Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I got a Woman
I got a Woman
I got a Woman
Dans l'Arabie des trois midis
Des tours aux fronts de caïmans
Dans l'Arabie de ta peau neuve
Le feu tinte dans les cloches
Douce est la parole de l'eau
Sous la clé des nuits légères
Enchaînées au coeur des filles
Le feu lèche les miroirs
Les museaux des endormies
Brûlent sous le regard fendu
Dans l'orange du matin
C'est pour ces pays d'un sou
Que se vide la mémoire
Pour la neige et la flamme
Dont se parent les étoiles
Sous la crinière aveugle
Court le feu inassouvi
Le cristal vivant des sources
Dans les eaux de l'avenir
Va mon enfant, dors mon cheval
Il n'y a pas assez de paix
Dans les justes mains des cimes
Pour couvrir la voix des villes.
The lyrics to Nicolas Jaar's song "I Got a Woman" are a combination of French and English verses. The opening lines repeat the phrase "I got a woman" four times, as if to emphasize the importance of this woman in the singer's life. The following verses describe a mythical land of Arabian nights, with towers decorated with crocodile fronts, and the singer's lover's skin described as new and black like a dream turban.
The imagery in the lyrics is rich and varied, with recurring themes of fire and water throughout. The fire is described as "licking the mirrors" and "unquenchable," while the water is portrayed as having a gentle voice and being a source of life. The language becomes more poetic as the song progresses, with lines like "the living crystal of the springs in the waters of the future." The final verse is a call to action, with the singer urging their listeners to have faith in the future and to not lose hope, even in the face of the chaos of the modern world.
In summary, "I Got a Woman" is a song that juxtaposes the modern world with a mythical past and presents a vision for a brighter future.
Line by Line Meaning
I got a Woman
This line is repeated four times like a refrain throughout the song.
In the Arabia of the three midday
The singer is transported to an exotic land with towering buildings and mysterious people.
Towers with caiman fronts
The structures in this Arabia are like creatures with scaly, fierce facial features.
In the Arabia of your new skin
The artist is now in a place that embodies youth and regeneration.
And turbans of black dreams
The people here wear headdresses that represent their deepest desires and aspirations.
The fire rings in the bells
The heat of the environment is felt in every sound and object.
Soft is the speech of water
The flowing liquid has a soothing and entrancing quality.
Under the key of light nights
In the darkness, secrets are unlocked and revealed.
Chained to the hearts of girls
The girls' hearts hold onto what is important and valuable.
The fire licks the mirrors
The flames are reflected and multiplied by shiny surfaces.
The snouts of the sleeping ones
The faces of those resting are vulnerable and exposed to danger.
Burn under the split gaze
Their fate is sealed under the scrutiny of others.
In the orange of the morning
The beginning of a new day is signaled by the radiant color of the sun.
It's for those one penny countries
The singer is willing to forget everything for the sake of exotic and unfamiliar places.
That memory is emptied
Everything is worth sacrificing for the chance of exploring new territories.
For the snow and the flame
The extremes of cold and heat are attractive and alluring.
Which stars adorn themselves with
Even the celestial bodies cannot resist the temptation of contrasting elements.
Under the blind mane
The hairlike projection is actually a fiery force that cannot be controlled.
Runs the insatiable fire
The craving for excitement and novelty is unstoppable.
The living crystal of sources
The water is a powerful and symbolic entity with healing and transformative properties.
In the waters of the future
The ripples and waves of what will come define the present.
Go my child, sleep my horse
The artist seems to be saying goodbye to someone or something dear to them.
There is not enough peace
The environment is simply too tumultuous and unpredictable.
In the righteous hands of the summits
Even the highest points of the mountains cannot provide the tranquility the artist is seeking.
To cover the voice of the cities
The noise and chaos of urban life are too overpowering to be silenced.
Contributed by Adeline N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Nicoestuvoaquí_
¡Lo mejor!
Rasma Roz
love this one
Mamuka Nozadze
this is the most dope thing ive ever heard
Life of Twampson
DAMN!!! Straight divine.
ollak
i think he kill it .. fucking awesome!
TheKingBobMarley
Majestic
boonloveslove
Casual. if you know what I mean.
Nikos Antonoulis
It has a little of Eric Satie in it !
Massimiliano De Angelis
Favoloso
Darshil D
dope